8-man football

[soberups]

I am lucky enough to live in an area that allows me to watch an anachronism....8-man high school football.

I went to St Paul last night to watch my local 1A football team...the St Paul Buckeroos...play the Falls City Mountaineers. I am happy to report that we won, 62-18. We were up 50-0 at the end of the first quarter before the coach put in his young guys and the "mercy rule" kicked in, which requires that once a team is up by 48 points the clock doesnt stop.
St Paul is a perennial favorite to win the state title, and Falls City was simply overmatched; they are such a small school that their entire team only suited up 17 players.

8-man football is a blast to watch. Its a very fast-paced and high scoring game; the ratio of eligible receivers is higher than in 11 man, and with fewer defenders to cover the same sized field you wind up with a lot more offense. There are only 3 down linemen. You see a lot of single-wing misdirection plays, double reverses etc. Long returns on punts and kickoffs are so common that many teams go for it on 4th down regardless of field position, and attempt onside kicks on every kickoff.

Pretty much the entire town of St Paul shows up on Friday nights to see the games. The field is in a converted rodeo arena that is oval shaped, with covered bleachers. There is lots of "tailgating" going on outside, with farmers in overalls drinking beer and barbequeing. It is a small town slice of classic Americana.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

sober, I'll do you one better--when I was stationed in Texas I got my first taste of 6 man football. You had a center, two guards, a quarterback and 2 other offensive players. This was for smaller schools who couldn't field a traditional 11 player football team. Like you described, 6 man football is wide open and dominated by the offense.

[brownmonster]

Sounds like fun to watch and the pre-game party sounds like a blast. On another note, several NFL teams appear to be playing with only 8 men.